I got this news from Seitz today, and if it materialize it's really good news.<<rendering a 32-bit HDR panorama quickly and efficiently>> !!!

<<New Roundshot VR Drive with HDR mode

For this year's photokina we are presenting the new Roundshot VR Drive with HDR mode and some new features.This much we can already say: together with Kolor we are developing a new VR Drive plug-in for their AutoPano stitching software.Many of our customers already use the Seitz xml file which defines the exact positions of every image in the capture sequence and helps in the stitching of uniform areas (skies, walls).The new VR Drive plug-in will detect the medium exposure and all settings for stitching and rendering a 32-bit HDR panorama quickly and efficiently.When used together the Seitz xml file and VR Drive plug-in for AutoPano create a seamless workflow and total control and convenience for VR Drive photographers.>>

leifs wrote:The new VR Drive plug-in will detect the medium exposure and all settings for stitching and rendering a 32-bit HDR panorama quickly and efficiently.When used together the Seitz xml file and VR Drive plug-in for AutoPano create a seamless workflow and total control and convenience for VR Drive photographers.>>leifs

The plugin is now in APG 3.0 alpha2, and to my surprise it's using the Papywizard-format XML's.Since my E-M5 doesn't work with the Seitz HDR option I will have to dig out my Canon 50Dino from the closet to test it."a seamless workflow and total control and convenience" producing HDR's is too good to be true !?Soon I will see/not see it

leifs wrote:"a seamless workflow and total control and convenience" producing HDR's is too good to be true !?Soon I will see/not see it leifs

What did I see ?First thing I saw was that the HDR option on the VRdrive is not needed ! I can use the bracket options on my E-M5, 5 images at -2,-1-0,1,2 EV and the head will shoot it AND produce a XML-file accordingly. So I shot a sphere with the Oly 12mm (24mm eq) with 5 bracketed images, 30x5 images.

Next thing was to import it to APG alpha2 using the VRdrive2 plugin. I've always developed the ORF-files (Oly RAW) to TIF, but this time I wanted to try the direct route. I chose the ORF-files and checked for "I want 32-bits HDR Radience" out !

The files were found and was nicely stacked. I did nothing but push the detection-button. The detected result was OK with a violet tint in the preview. I did nothing but push the render-button. After a while I had a 873MB EXR-file.

What did I get ?I opened the EXR in Photomatix and I was ashtonished ! No violet tint, no artifacts, nothing, just a nice result

What has happened ? If you shoot a bracketed pano and in some way or another make a Papywizard-format XML (e.g. let VRdrive2 do it) and import it into APG 3.0 using the VRdrive2 plugin, you can have a fused or EXR pano almost auto ! (Don't forget NPP and all the other pitfalls shooting panos)

leifs

Last edited by leifs on Sun Aug 26, 2012 9:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.

This VRDrive II plugin has been developed quite recently only and didn't have the same full debugging phase yet. For those who have a VRDrive II, just use it a lot to see if there are some bugs left.So go and stress it